


to fall; leave behind

by thedragonsarecats



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Gen, Just... pain, kind of a character study?, raleigh is so tired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 08:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18007748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedragonsarecats/pseuds/thedragonsarecats
Summary: Raleigh Becket does not die in Gypsy Danger’s escape pod. His lifeless body isn’t cradled by Mako Mori, as they both float in the middle of the ocean in the terrifying aftermaths of ending a war. He breaths, and smiles in that quiet, mournful way of his as the choppers carry him and Mako back to the Shatterdome. His knuckles are white from how hard Mako squeezes his hand, a desperate lifeline that she refuses to let go off after losing Pentecost. His lips are blue from the shock and the cold, and his eyes are drooping from the sheer exhaustion of the fight, of the war, and of the past five years. Raleigh Becket does not die in Gypsy Danger’s escape pod, not from lack of oxygen or radiation poisoning or any cruel but predictable turn of fate.He dies two hours later in the med-bay of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, instead.No one quite knows why.





	to fall; leave behind

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this tumblr post: https://inthedrift.tumblr.com/post/183221394498/ok-but-like-has-anyone-written-a-pacific-rim

Raleigh Becket does not die in Gypsy Danger’s escape pod. His lifeless body isn’t cradled by Mako Mori, as they both float in the middle of the ocean in the terrifying aftermaths of ending a war. He breaths, and smiles in that quiet, mournful way of his as the choppers carry him and Mako back to the Shatterdome. His knuckles are white from how hard Mako squeezes his hand, a desperate lifeline that she refuses to let go off after losing Pentecost. His lips are blue from the shock and the cold, and his eyes are drooping from the sheer exhaustion of the fight, of the war, and of the past five years. Raleigh Becket does not die in Gypsy Danger’s escape pod, not from lack of oxygen or radiation poisoning or any cruel but predictable turn of fate.

He dies two hours later in the med-bay of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, instead.

No one quite knows why.

It’s a quiet sort of death, not one expected from the once boisterous left-hemisphere pilot of Gypsy Danger. Everyone who'd ever thought about it believed he would either go out with a _bang_   ~~(like his brother)~~ or wouldn’t die at all, too invincible for death to wrap its cold dark fingers around his bright heart. It’s not quite suiting the grieving now right-hemisphere pilot of Gypsy Danger either, who wrenched himself out of his trauma and mourning to save the world, but in a way, it’s the death he deserved. Quiet, surrounded by friends, and after finally, _finally,_ making the Kaiju pay for everything they’ve done to humanity and everything they’ve done to him.

One moment the heart monitor is beeping, not strong, but steady, and the next. The next it’s not. There’s panic, of course, because not only is someone dying, _Raleigh Becket_ is dying, one half of the Jaeger team that took out the Kaiju’s once and for all. An American hero when he was in his prime, and a savior of the world when he was not.

They restart his heart, once, twice, and each time they barely get a reprieve before Raleigh’s eyes are darting beneath his eyelids and the heart monitor flatlines.

No one quite knows why, but. But Raleigh Becket has lived a hard life. Lost all his family; his Mother to cancer, his Father to cowardice, and both his siblings to Kaiju. He spent his twenties as a soldier, and then a tired veteran with half of his soul torn off until Mako Mori came along and kicked his ass in the Kwoon and helped him piece himself back together. And he keeps it together, through three drifts, five Kaiju, and a trip between worlds until he’s safely tucked away in the Shatterdome med bay, Mako holding his hand, Herc Hansen silently grieving next to her, and the two brilliant scientists who figured out everything that went wrong attempting to ease their minds with mindless chatter about everything that went right. And then. And then he let’s himself fall apart. 

He heart stops. He dies. They bring him back, once, twice, three times. Tendo appears during the third attempt, eyes wide and red, hands shaking, and remembers five years ago in Anchorage when the same thing happened after they brought Raleigh in during the aftermath of Knifehead. He had kept it together, brought Gypsy Danger back to shore, until he couldn’t, and his heart crashed twice in the hospital before they managed to stabilize him for good, and Tendo knows that _something_ is different this time because with his soul shattered Raleigh Becket still had enough fight in him to keep his head above water. Still had _something_ to fight.

He’s fought it all now.

Raleigh Becket slips away. Painfully for them, and painlessly for him. His heart stops, he lets go, and he lets the pieces of himself fall apart until all that’s left is a still-warm body whose hand is still being desperately held by Mako Mori’s.

They’re all heartbroken as he slips away for good, a finalization, even Newt who only shared a single stiff conversation, and none mores than Mako and Tendo, his partner and then his best friend, only. Tendo can’t mourn him the way she does. Can’t desperately wish that the world takes him back with open arms and lets him _breath_ and smile those endearing Raleigh Becket smiles, the way Tendo did five years ago with both of Gypsy’s pilots. Raleigh has only ever been his best friend, and Tendo has always loved him like a brother, but Raleigh has never been the other half of his soul. The lynch pin that keeps him together and lets him stand to fight against monsters both internal and external. Raleigh's not quite that lynch pin for Mako, either, who long since kept herself together to avenge her family, but his death is enough to shake her and leave the stoic girl Tendo's known since the attack on Oniiba all those years ago crying and shaking in a way he’d never thought she’d be. 

But still. Raleigh was his best friend, and Tendo knows better than most how cruel the world has been to him. How many blows it’s taken, and the cracks it’s left in the foundation of who Raleigh is. He’s heart broken, like they all are, when the final Becket slips away for good, but he can’t wish, he _won’t_ , wish that Raleigh comes back to him.

Because Raleigh’s last word, spoken between the last attempt to revive him, the most successful, the one that kept him around for a breathtaking moment as Raleigh opened his eyes tiredly, stared and smiled at something beyond all of them in was, _“Yancy.”_

And then he fell for good. 

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to write a "Raleigh Dies at the End of Pacific Rim" fic for a while because while I'm really glad he survived and gets to live in this new world he helped save, I also feel like it would have been fitting for him to die in Gypsy Danger and finally get to reunite with Yancy, and just... rest, after a lifetime of fighting. So here's the most painful possible version of that :)


End file.
